Oh i agree with the warm wishes quilt, i've never done one, but there's one in the photo section right now, that looks so gorgeous, but so easy, here is a link to it:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/19177.page

I always think rail fence is a great first quilt. For a second quilt, I would recommend log cabin. These quilts don't require matching seams, which is the most difficult skill to acquire IMO, but let you practice all of the other skills -- accurate cutting and sewing, making a sandwich, basting, quilting, binding. For a third quilt I would recommend a largish 9-patch, which requires matching seams. Fourth quilt would be Warm Wishes, which requires cutting up a 9-patch and matching even more seams. After that, anything goes!

oh prism, warm wishes is rail fence blocks, alternated with a plain block, unless theres another warm wishes i dont know about

:oops: You're right! I was thinking of the double 9-patch.

Also, rail fence and log cabin *do* require matching seams when you sew the blocks together! It's just that you don't have to match seams within the blocks, which means there is much less matching of seams required.

These senior moments are the pits!

see now i don't even know what a double 9-patch is, so you know more than me lol :) :)

prism,

do you have a link for the double 9-patches so I get an idea?

Not sure what you mean by matching seams b/c it looks to me that you have to match those square perfectly or else when you do the outside... so I guess I am missing something.

Thanks :)

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Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. Taking notes.

Moose here is the addy for the one I was suggesting:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/19126.page

Okay, I screwed up again with the name. I meant the disappearing 9-patch rather than the double 9-patch!

Do you have a beginning quilting book? I really think it is a good idea to have one on hand to help you with techniques, especially if you want to learn strip-piecing (what most of us use to speed up the process of making blocks).

Here is a link to a picture tutorial on how to make a double 9-patch by means of strip piecing. A 9-patch quilt is composed of just 9-patch blocks; a double 9-patch alternates 9-patch blocks with plain squares.
http://tinyurl.com/cd7w9k

Here is a link to a picture tutorial on how to make a disappearing 9-patch. For this one, you make a large 9-patch block and then cut the block and rearrange the pieces.
http://tinyurl.com/ccn6hn

The fewer seams in a block that need to be matched, the easier the blocks are to put together. With a rail fence pattern, the first time you need to match seams is when you sew one row of blocks to the next row; you just need to match the block seams. When you make a 9-patch block, you already have to match seams inside the block when you attach row 2 to row 1, row 3 to row 2, and then you still have all the block seams to match when you sew row 2 of the quilt to row 1 of the quilt.

What I was trying to say, in my senior moment way, was that the easiest quilt will have a block pattern that does not require matching seams within the block. Rail fence is like that.

Thank you for the links and clarification.

I was also told that the yellow brick road would be a good first project. Any opinions?

TIA

I don't think you can go wrong with a Yellow Brick Road done in blues and yellows for a first project (unless, like me, you have a husband who doesn't like yellow!).